Fears and Dreams
by Aitana Otara
Summary: In the midst of a battle with a pair of Psychological NEXTs, our Heroes realize that they have been bound together far deeper than they thought.


Fears and Dreams

Summary: In the midst of a battle with a pair of Psychological NEXTs, our Heroes realize that they have been bound together far deeper than they thought.

Rating: Angst/Drama

Pairing: Kotetsu T. Kaburagi/Wild Tiger x Barnaby Brooks Jr./Bunny

Disclaimer: I do not own Tiger & Bunny or any of its characters, except for Cynthia and Apollo.

Chapter 1: Entrance

Bombs detonating here and there, screaming and panicking people running away from the scene, guns being pointed at what their holders consider threats. This is the sight that Wild Tiger came to when he arrived with his partner at the open part of the mall, between the mall itself and its parking lot.

But they apparently weren't the first Heroes to come to the scene. The camera crew, of course, was the first to arrive, filming and simply reporting to live TV what was going on. Blue Rose and Sky High were already there, freezing criminals and flying to save hostages.

"All right, let's get this over with," Barnaby mumbled as he got off the bike and ran towards the crisis, Wild Tiger skipping energetically behind him.

Without further ado, the duo were scoring points—kicking ass and saving people, and apparently destroying mall property in the process in regard to the older hero. But nonetheless, they worked together with the other Heroes to solve this crisis.

Soon, Wild Tiger could hear from the announcer that the rest of the Heroes had arrived to help out. And just as more Heroes came to the scene, more criminals seemed to have appeared, all dressed in black masks, black gloves and ridiculous black jumpsuits each with matching silver belts. They all seemed to have the same build, the same hairstyle from the back, and the same guns, aside from their attires.

One could certainly suspect that most, if not all, were clones of a Multiplier NEXT from just looking and fighting them. And that was exactly what the Heroes assumed, especially after learning that the criminals all had basically the same abilities and skills—which were particularly good and strangely challenging, or so Kotetsu thought.

However things slowly got out of hand after a good while. Somehow, the number of criminals had gone up to at least ten times more from when they first arrived. Kotetsu could see that the rest of them were beginning to have a hard time.

At one point, Sky High had gone down from being hit at a critical point. And despite his reassurances in their intercoms, Wild Tiger could hear just from his voice that he was in pain, which worried the rest of the Heroes.

At the far side, Blue Rose and Dragon Kid somehow had gotten cornered together. And just like everybody else, they were obviously exhausted from fighting the same guys over and over again in great numbers.

Rock Bison was close to going down, Kotetsu could hear him grunting and panting from the intercom. It was pretty obvious that he tried hard not to show it. This also worried the veteran hero.

Just across Rock Bison's area, Fire Emblem was trying to make his way through the clones to get to last season's King of Heroes, Sky High. He was also not doing well and as far as Wild Tiger was concerned, it seemed like he was pissed and was soon to blow.

"Old man, get your head back in _our_ game!" Barnaby said as he kicked a clone away and dodged a punch from a different one. They were on the side across the girls' area. And just as Wild Tiger threw a punch at another clone, more came up and both were pushed to stand back to back, surrounded as well, tired, beaten and out of time for their Hundred Powers.

"Heh, we've got them cornered. I told you this would work!" A voice came from somewhere above.

Wild Tiger looked up, flinching from the glow of the late afternoon sun. He watched the camera crew on their chopper circle around the roof of the mall where two silhouettes stood. With the help of his suit's high definition camera, the brunette could see that one silhouette was that of a female teenager's and the other was that of a male teenager's. And with a few more focusing, he could just barely make out their masked faces and see their matching villain costumes.

"Aren't you glad we had actually teamed up with another NEXT?" Another voice said; apparently, it was the male's. "This is sooo cool!"

"Wha! I'm the one who planned it all!" Came the first voice. Apparently, it belonged to the girl.

"But _I_ gave you the idea! That makes me the genius!"

"Hey, twins! Stop fighting!" One of the clones of the Multiplier NEXT shouted up to them. "It's your stage from here on out! Hurry up and disable the Heroes!"

"With pleasure~" Both the twins replied, their tones changing from agitated ones to thrilled. And with a pose, they jumped down from the top of the building. For a moment, Wild Tiger simply thought they had air-based powers, since their falling speed slowed down and they landed gracefully in the middle of the scene that was cleared out by the clones and where every Hero could see them, and they could see every Hero.

But in this closer range of sight, Kotetsu could see that they have used jet packs that are bigger and most likely stronger than Sky High's.

He could also see their costumes and assets much more clearly. They both wore black and white horizontally striped pants, purple tees that ended in jagged cuts just above their midriff, and long black coats. Symmetrically, that is if they stood side by side, they each wore gloves on one hand, eye scopes on one eye and had their hair divided on different sides.

"And so our new villains have come and made their entrance! With our Heroes each in a disadvantage, how are they going to handle the situation!" The announcer's voice from HeroTV came about.

"Heh, we're not just villains!" the girl started.

"We're the very villains who will bring down these Heroes that you all admire!" the boy continued.

"Cynthia!"

"And Apollo!"

"Gemini at your service!" Both said together after another pose for the camera. Obviously they were enjoying the attention they were getting from all of this—to which the Oriental saw his partner roll his eyes at their childishness.

"You'll never get away with this!" Tiger heard Dragon Kid shout at them from her tight spot. Then he watched as she conjured electricity that paralyzed the men around them. Blue Rose joined her by freezing down the next layer of enemies around them. They continued to fight their way out in combos like this.

And just as if they all had their minds linked up, the rest of the Heroes once more began to struggle through the sea of black-clothed men, all aiming to rejoin each other at the center of the area and take down the twins.

Fire Emblem burned them down, knowing there was to be no casualties since they were only clones. Now it was obvious that he was pissed, though in a rather graceful way.

Rock Bison, despite his fatigue, brought down the clones in his way, Origami Cyclone coming up to help him. They, too, started to do things in combos.

Sky High, who seemed to have recovered from the critical hit he took a while back, went airborne before he ordered gusts of wind to wipe down most of the clones in his area. And then he joined the lone Fire Emblem to make their own group that would last probably for only now.

"Alright! Get ready, we won't be left behind," Kotetsu said energetically, somehow regaining a bit of strength. And so the Hero duo Wild Tiger and Barnaby started their own few combos, activating their Good Luck modes and using the now heavier and bigger armor to get past their enemies and rejoin their friends.

Not very far from above, the news team was hovering in the chopper, narrating and filming the events.

It was noticeable how the twins simply watched the scene unfold in front of them with huge grins on their faces. It confused Kotetsu how calm they were about the situation; almost as if it was part of their plan to let the Heroes come together.

Upon getting to the center, Rock Bison, Dragon Kid, Fire Emblem and Sky High turned the other direction to fight back the clones while the others took care of the twins.

"You are under arrest!" Blue Rose said with her ice guns pointed at the two villains. She only earned bigger grins in reply.

And in a second, the identical twins glowed blue and posed, each raising an arm up where above them formed a purple-white ball of light.

Kotetsu blinked and in one look at it, he found himself falling into a deep dark hole.


End file.
